Services / Corporate Investigations
Corporate investigations
When something is wrong inside or around your business, find out what actually happened
Missing money, a supplier that turned out not to exist, a director with undisclosed interests, a whistleblower report nobody knows how to handle. Valitros investigates lawfully, documents everything, and gives your board and your lawyers a factual account they can act on.
Corporate investigations fail in two ways. Either nobody looks properly because it is uncomfortable, and the problem compounds. Or someone looks in a way that breaks the law, tips off the subject, or contaminates the evidence, and the matter becomes unusable in court or with the regulator.
A good investigation is planned around the decision it has to support: terminate, recover, report, litigate or clear. It preserves evidence, respects the rights of the people involved, keeps the circle small, and produces a record that stands up to a hostile reading.
Valitros brings the investigative skill, the international reach and the compliance grounding to run that process, working with your in house or external lawyers so that privilege, employment law and reporting obligations are handled correctly from day one.
What you get
Fraud and misconduct inquiries
Suspected fraud, theft, kickbacks, conflicts of interest, expense and procurement abuse, and breaches of policy. Document review, transaction analysis, structured interviews and a chronology of what happened, who knew and when.
Asset tracing and recovery support
Where money or assets have gone: bank and payment flows within lawful reach, property, vehicles, companies and trusts across jurisdictions, and the evidence your lawyers need for freezing orders, disclosure applications and recovery.
Counterparty and supplier fraud
Phantom vendors, invoice fraud, substituted goods, fake certifications and business email compromise. We establish whether the counterparty exists, who is behind it, and how the scheme worked.
Whistleblower and integrity matters
Independent handling of protected disclosures under the Corporations Act whistleblower regime: triage, a proportionate investigation, protection of the discloser, and a report the board can rely on.
Director and executive conduct
Undisclosed interests, related party dealings, breaches of duty and side businesses, established from records and lawful enquiry rather than rumour.
Litigation and regulatory support
Factual investigation, witness identification, document preservation and evidence packaging under the direction of your lawyers, including matters before ASIC, AUSTRAC, the ATO, the SFO in the UK and overseas regulators.
How it works
Step 1
Confidential scoping
A short call under confidentiality. We establish what is suspected, what decision the work must support, who must not know, and whether lawyers should be instructed first so that privilege attaches. Written plan and fee within one business day.
Step 2
Preserve first
Before anyone is interviewed, the evidence is secured: documents, systems access logs, communications on company devices under company policy, and third party records that can be obtained lawfully.
Step 3
Investigate
Records analysis, open source and registry research in every relevant country, lawful enquiries with third parties, and interviews conducted fairly and documented. Fieldwork through vetted licensed partners where the trail leads overseas.
Step 4
Report and next steps
A factual report with a chronology, findings by allegation, the evidence for each, and what remains unknown. A separate recommendations note covers remediation, recovery, reporting obligations and controls.
Where we work
Core markets for on the ground work. Desk research covers every jurisdiction.
South East Asia
Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia
Europe
United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Cyprus, Malta
Middle East
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Turkey
Africa
South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritius
Lawful, and clear about it
- Valitros is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Where a matter needs legal advice, privilege or court process, we work under the direction of your lawyers.
- Investigative fieldwork is carried out by our team and by vetted local partners who hold the licences their jurisdiction requires. We do not name partners publicly, and we tell you who is instructed on your matter before they start.
- Every method we use is lawful: public and official records, licensed databases, open source research, consented reference and document checks, interviews with people who agree to speak, and physical verification of premises from public places. We do not pretext, access private systems or accounts, intercept communications, or conduct surveillance that breaches privacy or harassment laws.
- Personal information is collected and handled under the Australian Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, and under the GDPR and local data protection law where the subject or the work is in those jurisdictions.
- Interviews are voluntary, conducted fairly, and recorded or documented with the participant aware. Employment law, the Fair Work Act and workplace policies govern how employees are involved. Whistleblowers are protected as the Corporations Act requires.
- Company devices, systems and records are examined only under the company’s own policies and lawful authority. Personal accounts and devices are outside scope unless a court orders access.
Questions we are asked
Should we call our lawyers first?
Often, yes. If litigation, a regulatory report or dismissal is a realistic outcome, having the investigation commissioned through your lawyers can preserve legal professional privilege over the work. We are happy to be instructed directly or through counsel, and we will tell you on the scoping call which is wiser for your matter.
Can you investigate without the suspect knowing?
The desk and records phase is discreet by nature, and we plan the sequence so the subject is not alerted before evidence is preserved. What we will not do is deceive people to obtain information, access private accounts, or surveil anyone unlawfully. Interviews of the subject happen when the evidence is ready and they are treated fairly.
Do you recover the money?
We find it and document it. Recovery itself is a legal process: freezing orders, judgments, insolvency proceedings or negotiated settlement, run by your lawyers with our evidence. We stay involved through that process, including locating assets in other countries.
How are overseas elements handled?
Through vetted local partners who hold the licences their country requires, working to our scope and reporting standard. Cross border document and evidence gathering follows the local law of each place, which sometimes means a lawful route is slower than a client expects. We say so upfront.
What does it cost?
A scoped internal inquiry typically starts in the low tens of thousands of dollars; asset tracing and multi country matters are quoted in phases so you can stop when the answer is clear. Every engagement has a written scope and a cap before work begins.
Guides
The first 72 hours after you suspect fraud: what to do and what not to do
A practical sequence for directors and in house counsel when internal fraud is suspected: preserve evidence, control the circle, decide on privilege, and avoid the mistakes that make matters unrecoverable.
7 minute read
Asset tracing across borders: how the money is found and what it takes to get it back
How international asset tracing works in practice: following funds through companies, property and trusts across jurisdictions, what can be obtained lawfully, and how tracing feeds freezing orders and recovery.
7 minute read
Handling a whistleblower report under the Corporations Act: an investigation guide
What Australian companies must do when a protected disclosure lands: eligibility, confidentiality, protection from detriment, a proportionate investigation, and reporting back, with the mistakes that draw ASIC attention.
6 minute read
Supplier fraud: phantom vendors, invoice fraud and the counterparty that does not exist
How supplier and counterparty fraud schemes work, the controls that catch them, and how an investigation establishes whether the vendor is real, who is behind it, and where the money went.
6 minute read
Talk it through
A thirty minute call to understand the matter, the countries involved and the decision it has to support. Written scope and fee within one business day.
Book a scoping call